Thursday, November 20, 2008

Buy enough MP3s for a 50 trillion mile road trip

For the price of the Iraq War, we could buy enough MP3s to go on a 50 trillion mile road trip without listening to the same song twice.

At 70 miles per hour, one can go 50 trillion miles in 81.5 million years. Assuming an average song length of 4 minutes, that much travel requires 10.7 trillion songs. The emusic Connoisseur plans allow one to buy 100 DRM-free songs for $25. At this price, enough music for a 50 trillion mile road trip would cost $2.68 trillion, or $320 billion less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the total cost of the Iraq War.